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Fundraising and Development

Events Management

Nonprofit Management

Newsletter 

Charity Navigator and Network for Good report that nonprofits raise 30-40 percent of their annual income during the last few weeks of the year.  If you do not have a solid end-of-year fundraising strategy in place, you risk missing your annual goal.  Now is the time to review your strategies and make any adjustments.  As you do, keep these strategies in mind:

1.   Set a realistic goal.

• Set a goal based on your previous results.  If you can, aim to beat your own record.
• Create a sense of ownership by publicly and frequently stating your fundraising goal and hold your staff, board, and donors accountable to meeting it.

2.   Reinvent the way you talk to your donors.

• Write a simple, focused emotional appeal that will inspire action.
• Create a sense of urgency.  Tell your donors why their gift is important today.
• Make it personal.  Share success stories using testimonials, pictures, and videos.

3.   Make the most of your most generous donors.

• Identify your top LYBUNT donors -- those who gave Last Year But Unfortunately Not This year.
• Set up in-person meetings with each of them.  Engage them by asking for their advice or help with a key organizational issue.
• Have top-level development staff and board ask for an increased gift this year and ask for their help in identifying new prospects.

4.   Engage your volunteers.

• Set individual fundraising goals for your volunteers and give them the resources and training they need to achieve these goals.
• Assign volunteers to solicit your second-tier LYBUNT donors through in-person visits.
• Thank volunteers through a special year-end event or other celebration.

5.   Follow-up repeatedly.

• Reinforce your year-end mailing using all available communication vehicles -- email, phone, in-person meetings, etc.
• Consistently repeat your message.  Donors often need to hear your request several times before they give.

Use these strategies in your year-end strategic fundraising plan to meet and exceed your annual goal.

* * * 

In an article in  The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Kathleen Loehr, Managing Director at OAI, comments on the need to approach women differently than men when soliciting donations. Citing her own example of solicitation by her alma mater, Cornell University, Kathleen gave beyond her normal contribution when "one fundraiser took the time to do some research and acknowledged [her] long history of aiding the university before asking how she might want to contribute in her reunion year."

"Women donors are increasingly demanding a more personal approach from nonprofits, yet they say fundraisers have been slow to deliver," the article states. Kathleen adds that "Too many charity appeals are transactional, male-driven, goal-driven, reunion-timed, match-your-peers challenge grants."

Rather than missing our on opportunities with some of their most generous supporters, Kathleen encourages fundraisers "take the time" when working with women donors because you will "almost always get more dollars and more engagement."

 Fundraising and the Female Donor 

Thursday, September 12, 2013

2:00 - 3:00pm

By almost every measure, women are more likely than men to contribute to nonprofits. And with demographics changing, women are becoming increasingly more educated, earning more money, and heading more households.

Yet women still are not asked to give to charities as often as men, and most charities rely on fundraising tactics preferred by men, even when soliciting female donors. Join The Chronicle of Philanthropy for this informative session to learn how to tap into this often overlooked group of supporters.

Speakers:

• Kathleen Loehr, Managing Director, Orr Associates, Inc. (OAI)
• Beth M. Mann, Associate Vice President, The Jewish Federations of North America

Registration:

Register by clicking here.